's fighting? The fight with Britain, which Prime Minister Trudeau now seems helibent on fomenting, is the most absurd development of all in the long months of over patriation of the Canadian constitution. - Fifty years ago, in the 1931 Statute of Westminster, the U.K. parliament handed over full and independent constitution- making powers to such former colonies as _ Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Canada, of course, was also included in the list of countries that were no longer to be subject to U.K. laws. - Canada alone refused at that time to accept full independence. The Canadian government of the day insisted on the in- clusion in the Statute of Section 7 under which the British North America Act remained for the time being under British jurisdiction. _ The reason for this strange rejection of independence was that Ottawa — half a _ century ago, just as‘today — couldn't agree with the provinces on an amending formula. Now,:Mr. Tradeau and his henchmen are demanding that Britain should rubber-stamp a highly. controversial constitution which is still opposed by a majority of the provinces. In other words, Britain ts being asked to assume responsibility for something the Trudeau government itself cannot achieve by agreement within Canada. | There's a much cleaner solution. The U.K. pariiament can simply abolish Section 7 of the Statute. of Westminster. This would automatically patriate the BNA Act, leaving Canadians free to do their own constitution- making in their own country. If the Brits — who are aching to be rid of the BNA Act — have any sense, that’s exactly what they'll do. Road to riches If you're a pushover for those ads promising you an éasy way to wealth, spare a tear for Sandra Brown who once wrote an article “How to make a million before you're 34”. In New York recently she got 14 years in jal for swindling $10 million from a government agency and two banks. Any better ideas, anyone? THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER sunday | news north shore news NEWS 985-2131 1139 Lonsdale Ave North Vancouver, 8 C V7M 2H4 (604) 986-2131 ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED CIRCULATION 980-0611 986-6222 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright Eric Cardwelt General Manager Creative Production Administration Director Rick Stonehouse Berni Hilliard Tim Francis Faye McCrae Managing Editor News Editor Photography Andy Fraser Chris Uoyd Eltsworth Dickson Accounting Supervisor Circulation Director Barbara Keen Brian A Ellis North Bhore News, founded in 1969 as an independent communi ty newspaper and qualified under Gchedute tl Part () Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, te published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Ciass Mail Registration Number 3666 Subscriptions $20 per year Entire contents ¢ 1Q80 North Shore Free Prose Lid All righte reserved No responsibility accepted for unsolicited maternal including manuscripta and pictures which should be accompanied by 4 stamped. addressed return envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION 60,870 Wednesday. 49,913 Sunday sm 2G THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE OTTAWA(SF) - _ It’s getting so that a cabinet decision takes longer to make than the preparation of recommendations. You might call it the political hesitation waltz. Since 1973 the federal Depattment of Transport has been pushing Canada to build a nuclear icé breaker. The last new ice breaker Why parents pay for ‘values’ ‘awa’s ba esitation waltz’ Canadian Comment BY PETER WARD ~ Canada built went into service in 1970. Needless to say the administrations of Pierre Prime Minister Trudeau haven't made serious motions about ex- panding the fleet any fur ther. Canada, the country with the longest coastline in the world, and the most Arctic water, containing islands with the greatest store of natural resources in the world, has an ice breaker fleet which is running down through obsolescence. ; In early November a twin proposal for new ice breakers went to cabinet committee. Transport wants final approval. on con- struction of a conventionally powered ice breaker, which could be the most powerful in the world by some margin. Cost is estimated to be $270 thillion in 1980 dollars, and the vessels would be able to operate in most of Canada’s Arctic waters year-round. It would make possible such activity for the first time. In fact, if cabinet approval for the conventional super _ ice breaker is not given this May, the ship won't meet Transport’s scheduled date for going into service in 1986. Without that ice breaker, it may not be possible for the Arctic Pilot - 2 What do the parents of the 26,000 students attending B.C.’s 224 independent schools get for ‘their money? Why are they ready to pay annual fees ranging all the way from $150 to $7,000 over and above the universal school taxes used to run the free public school system? The one-word answer is values. More precisely, the value of their choice. In this sense the independent schools are a reflection and extension of the basic principle of democracy. Citizens in a democratic state are free to elect the political representatives and partics which seem most likely to further their in- dividual interests, diverse though these may be. It can logically be argued that the same freedom of choice is even more vital when it comes to their children’s schooling. Governments can be changed at frequent in- tervals. Education lasts a lifetime. Moreover, like political movemonts themselves, all education is biased because all oducation operates in the marketplace of ideas. The facts and knowledge taught in schools are never presented in isolation. They are evaluated and used to obtain the desired results for a par ticular educational philosophy on the basis of specific godla and ob- jectives. To suggest, as some people do, that the public schools have the virtue of being “neutral” with respect to values is nonsense. The B.C. Public Schools Act requires that they “shall be conducted on strictly secular and non-sectarian prin- ciples” — then immediately goes on to demand that “the highest morality shall be inculcated” . Obviously you can’t in- culcate morality § without reference to some code of ‘behavior, which automatically makes you “sectarian” in the dictionary sense. In practice the so- called “neutral” public schools are firmly com- mitted to the valucs of egalitarian uniformity within the law but not, ap- parently, to much elsc. The distinguishing feature of the various alternatives to the public school system is that they all offer values of a more positive and cicarly defined type. Their parent body is the Fedcration of Indcpendent School Associations (PISA) in which the Catholic schoola form the largest single group. Here, aa in the case of the smaller Society for Christian Schools, the accent is firmly on a4 religtous concept | of Noel Wright education in relation to life and the world. A third group, the In- dependent Schools Association of B.C. is represented by such prestige cstablishments as St. George's School, York House and Crofton House. Non-scctarian in the religious sense, they con- contrate heavily on character-building and standards of personal conduct. A fourth group under FISA consists of schools with widely varying (though equally definite) philosophies of their own. A typical member of this group Project to go ahead, and that would mean expensive delay on the scheme to ship natural gas from the Arctic Islands to the mouth via ic breaking liquified natural gas tankers. ; In tandem wih the reques! for approval for issuing contract on the conventio ice breaker, cabinet been presented wit request to approve §$4' million .to complete final design for a nuclear’ icé breaker, which could taki -another quantum lea forward in power an capabilities These two ships togethe: have the potential to be th keys which would unlock the resources Of the Canadian Arctic and set Canada firm! on a new road to prosperity Hudson Bay. could be kep open as a port, year-round the oil and natutal gas of th Arctic would be freed; an the fabulous mineral weal of the northern islands would be unlocked. What a pity that we have government which is afrai to tackle major projects. What a pity the cab prefers the hesitation waltz. is Waldorf School, 1 oO! the principles of Rudolf Steiner. The Waldorf concept, for” example, holds that man is.” an evolving being whose.. experience of life is not: confined to the everyday, world of the senses. It offers. a balanced curriculum of ' humanities, science and the arts — with considerable: stress on such subjects as. languages, music, curythmy, painting, physical education | and crafts. hte There is no evidence that these differing value systems detract from the quality of teaching in independent.” schools, many of which can” boast of academic standards. as high as (and in certain: | cased higher than) those of =: equivalent public schools. What the independent - : schools, according to their - proponents, supply in ad- dition is some morally © constructive attitude to life’. which frequently seems to be .. ; lacking in the deliberate. uniformity of the public school system. PO That, at any rate, is what’. an increasing number | ot parenta appear willing to pay. for. But should they have to?” Should freedom of. educational choice in & \ democratic society be- subject to financial: penalties? In a concluding” column on the subject pext . week we'll examine this all’: important question.